נָחַםnâcham

be sorry, console

Pronunciation: naw-kham' · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H5162

Meanings

1. be sorry, moved to pity, have compassion (Jeremiah 15:6; Psalms 90:13; Judges 21:6)

2. be sorry, rue, suffer grief, repent (Exodus 13:17; Psalms 106:45; Jeremiah 20:16)

3. comfort oneself, be comforted (Genesis 38:12; Psalms 77:3; Ezekiel 31:16)

4. comfort oneself, ease oneself (Isaiah 1:24; Isaiah 57:6)

Piel: comfort, console (Isaiah 49:13; Job 29:25; Job 42:11)

Pual: be comforted, consoled (Isaiah 54:11; Isaiah 66:13)

Hithpa`el

1. be sorry, have compassion (Deuteronomy 32:36; Psalms 135:14)

2. rue, repent of (Numbers 23:19)

3. comfort oneself, be comforted (Genesis 37:35; Psalms 119:52)

4. ease oneself, compare Qal 4 (Ezekiel 5:13; Genesis 27:42)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 108 times in the Bible.

  • Genesis 5:29 Lamech named his son Noah, for he said, “May he bring us relief from our work and the painful labor of farming this ground that the Lord has cursed.”
  • Genesis 6:6 So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.
  • Genesis 6:7 And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.”
  • Genesis 24:67 And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent, and she became his wife. He loved her deeply, and she was a special comfort to him after the death of his mother.
  • Genesis 27:42 But Rebekah heard about Esau’s plans. So she sent for Jacob and told him, “Listen, Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you.
  • Genesis 37:35 His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “I will go to my grave mourning for my son,” he would say, and then he would weep.
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).